[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
do both. It s almost like they have thermostats.
Perhaps they do, in a way, the captain said. The combination of inert
atmospheric gases might well interact with the sunlight on the other side to
filter out some of the solar heat and disperse it. That is certainly true of
the pretty blue and white one. I just ran a simulation, and the addition of
sunlight to that mixture would almost create both a heat and light shield. You
could almost think of it as a planet with a natural sunscreen. It s still
going to be very hot on the other side, but if you limited your activities to
night, when it was turned towards the planet and away from the sun, and took
shelter during the day, you could live through it. It s also got quite a lot
of water, so think of it as a tropical steam bath.
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
That other one isn t any steam bath, Nagel pointed out.
No, it s mostly desert, and a cold desert at that, at least on this side of
the planet, away from the sun. Still, there is considerable water, much as
ice, on the surface, and a good atmospheric mix. It probably gets just cold
enough to be nearly unbearable when it rounds the big one and gets hit by
sunlight. I think it might well be a whole different world on the solar side.
Warmer, liquid water, who knows what else? Heated up just enough to sustain it
and anything on it that knows how to compensate during the cold outsystem
time. Roughly thirty standard days on this side, about the same on the other.
Our jungle world is faster, under fifteen days each side. Wonder what the
third is
like?
Well, it s a long way from here, but I haven t anything better to do, Cross
noted. Let s go see.
Moving in-system. I m going to take a little extra time to leapfrog that
nasty inner asteroid belt as much as possible. In the meantime, we ve all got
lots of new information to work with.
Any scan of radio or other broadcast signals from in-system? An Li asked.
Or the remnants of other ships?
Hard to say on the ships. There s nothing recognizable as a ship s power
signature, if that s what you mean, not in orbit around any of them or in the
visible system, but we ve only seen half of it and haven t begun to map things
yet. There are life signs on both worlds, even the frozen one, but it s much
too far to tell what sort of life we re talking about. The pretty blue and
white one has a few surface energy signatures that could be ships of some
kind, but, if they are, they aren t big suckers. More like the shuttle we use
to go from planet to orbit only there are no evident ships in orbit, if you
see what I mean. That says that they could be anything. The cold little desert
one has a vast number of really odd energy signatures, no fixed locations, but
there is simply nothing in my data that matches any of them. Could be your
alien masterminds, but more likely it s some kind of energy signatures from
minerals or deep down interactions below the crust. I have no records of any
readings like this before, but, then again, I ve got hundreds of cases of
readings just as bizarre and all turned out to be natural phenomena.
We ve all got aliens on the brain
, Randi Queson thought to herself.
Still, we had no such thoughts the last trip and look what we met up with.
That cold little world there, for example, reminds me a little too much of
where we ve already been.
An Li s cut caused by a flying something turned out to be a pretty nasty
slash right across her forehead in a jagged and bloody shape. It was easily
attended to, and they even had skin repair in the medical unit that would,
over time, make it vanish completely. For the moment, she refused the full
repairs, much to everyone s surprise, and accepted only the treatment pack
that would seal and heal it in a day or two. It would also leave a pretty
nasty scar that would mar her delicate beauty, and if An Li was anything she
was quite vain about that.
Randi s bruise turned out to be a fracture, but, again, it was easily set
within the medical unit. She would have very limited movement there and have
to wear a healing splint for a few days, but, again, there would be no
permanent damage. The fracture was clean and rather slight, not a full break
but more a chip. As she was left-handed anyway, it wouldn t crimp her style
very much, and it was likely that both would be fine by the time they got
close in on the big planet.
At least the monk scout s information as far as it went was borne out. The
pretty little moon was almost certainly what he d called Balshazzar; the cold
and inhospitable but still livable moon was Kaspar; and still among the
missing was Melchior, supposedly much larger than the other two and far more
Page 83
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
active and violent a world. Kaspar was almost two thirds of the way through
its cold side transverse, and Balshazzar about midway. It was likely that all [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
do both. It s almost like they have thermostats.
Perhaps they do, in a way, the captain said. The combination of inert
atmospheric gases might well interact with the sunlight on the other side to
filter out some of the solar heat and disperse it. That is certainly true of
the pretty blue and white one. I just ran a simulation, and the addition of
sunlight to that mixture would almost create both a heat and light shield. You
could almost think of it as a planet with a natural sunscreen. It s still
going to be very hot on the other side, but if you limited your activities to
night, when it was turned towards the planet and away from the sun, and took
shelter during the day, you could live through it. It s also got quite a lot
of water, so think of it as a tropical steam bath.
Page 82
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
That other one isn t any steam bath, Nagel pointed out.
No, it s mostly desert, and a cold desert at that, at least on this side of
the planet, away from the sun. Still, there is considerable water, much as
ice, on the surface, and a good atmospheric mix. It probably gets just cold
enough to be nearly unbearable when it rounds the big one and gets hit by
sunlight. I think it might well be a whole different world on the solar side.
Warmer, liquid water, who knows what else? Heated up just enough to sustain it
and anything on it that knows how to compensate during the cold outsystem
time. Roughly thirty standard days on this side, about the same on the other.
Our jungle world is faster, under fifteen days each side. Wonder what the
third is
like?
Well, it s a long way from here, but I haven t anything better to do, Cross
noted. Let s go see.
Moving in-system. I m going to take a little extra time to leapfrog that
nasty inner asteroid belt as much as possible. In the meantime, we ve all got
lots of new information to work with.
Any scan of radio or other broadcast signals from in-system? An Li asked.
Or the remnants of other ships?
Hard to say on the ships. There s nothing recognizable as a ship s power
signature, if that s what you mean, not in orbit around any of them or in the
visible system, but we ve only seen half of it and haven t begun to map things
yet. There are life signs on both worlds, even the frozen one, but it s much
too far to tell what sort of life we re talking about. The pretty blue and
white one has a few surface energy signatures that could be ships of some
kind, but, if they are, they aren t big suckers. More like the shuttle we use
to go from planet to orbit only there are no evident ships in orbit, if you
see what I mean. That says that they could be anything. The cold little desert
one has a vast number of really odd energy signatures, no fixed locations, but
there is simply nothing in my data that matches any of them. Could be your
alien masterminds, but more likely it s some kind of energy signatures from
minerals or deep down interactions below the crust. I have no records of any
readings like this before, but, then again, I ve got hundreds of cases of
readings just as bizarre and all turned out to be natural phenomena.
We ve all got aliens on the brain
, Randi Queson thought to herself.
Still, we had no such thoughts the last trip and look what we met up with.
That cold little world there, for example, reminds me a little too much of
where we ve already been.
An Li s cut caused by a flying something turned out to be a pretty nasty
slash right across her forehead in a jagged and bloody shape. It was easily
attended to, and they even had skin repair in the medical unit that would,
over time, make it vanish completely. For the moment, she refused the full
repairs, much to everyone s surprise, and accepted only the treatment pack
that would seal and heal it in a day or two. It would also leave a pretty
nasty scar that would mar her delicate beauty, and if An Li was anything she
was quite vain about that.
Randi s bruise turned out to be a fracture, but, again, it was easily set
within the medical unit. She would have very limited movement there and have
to wear a healing splint for a few days, but, again, there would be no
permanent damage. The fracture was clean and rather slight, not a full break
but more a chip. As she was left-handed anyway, it wouldn t crimp her style
very much, and it was likely that both would be fine by the time they got
close in on the big planet.
At least the monk scout s information as far as it went was borne out. The
pretty little moon was almost certainly what he d called Balshazzar; the cold
and inhospitable but still livable moon was Kaspar; and still among the
missing was Melchior, supposedly much larger than the other two and far more
Page 83
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
active and violent a world. Kaspar was almost two thirds of the way through
its cold side transverse, and Balshazzar about midway. It was likely that all [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]